November 18, 2013

Projected Big 12 Teams Narrowed Down to 2

West Virginia’s surprising loss to Kansas guaranteed that the Big 12 will finish with just six bowl eligible teams, casting a bit of doubt on what Big 12 team (if any) will be representing the conference in Houston. Iowa is emerging as the favorite from the Big Ten side, with Michigan and Minnesota also appearing in the projections.

ESPN.com Big 12/Big Ten Bloggers: Texas Tech vs. Minnesota

Brad Edwards – ESPN: Oregon State* vs. Michigan

Mark Schlabach – ESPN: Kansas State vs. Iowa

Jerry Palm – CBSSports.com: Kansas State vs. Iowa

Jason Kirk – SBNation: Kansas State vs. Iowa

CollegeFootballNews.com: Texas Tech vs. Iowa

Stewart Mandel – Sports Illustrated: Texas Tech vs. Iowa

Texas Bowl Staff: Kansas State vs. Iowa

*Big 12 Replacement

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Where we stand: Kansas State became the last Big 12 team to guarantee bowl eligibility with thrilling last-minute win over TCU that also ensured the Horned Frogs will not be going bowling for the first time since 2004. Texas Tech went up early on Baylor, however the Bears powerful offense came to life and the Red Raiders were not able to hang on.

As you can see in ESPN BCS Expert Brad Edwards predictions, things could get interesting if the Big 12 sends two teams to the BCS, as West Virginia’s loss guarantees the conference would not have enough 6 win teams to fill their spot in the Texas Bowl should a second Big 12 team end up getting selected as a BCS At-Large. At that point, the door would be open for a conference with more bowl eligible teams than bowl tie-ins (the Pac 12 and potentially the ACC could both fit that mold this year) to send one to Houston. This is where ESPN BCS expert Brad Edwards’ above Oregon State prediction originated.

On the Big Ten side, Stanford’s loss to USC leaves either Wisconsin or Michigan State as a popular pick to fill a BCS at large spot, bumping all of the Big Ten teams up one place. Iowa remains the most popular Big Ten pick, as they took the weekend off before squaring off against Michigan at home on Saturday. The 6-4 Hawkeyes are guaranteed to go bowling this year after missing out last season.

Minnesota was off this weekend, but the streaking Golden Gophers entered the BCS top 25 for the first time since 2008 and will likely be off the board by the time we are selecting. Meanwhile in Evanston, Michigan continued Northwestern’s snakebit season, knocking off the Wildcats in double overtime after racing onto the field to convert the game tying field goal with 1 seconds left on a running clock in the 4th quarter.

Likely 2014 matchup: Each week, we’ll take a look at what our potential matchup would be next year, as we move up two spots in the Big 12 and into a rotation of selections in the SEC. Here’s our (admittedly somewhat wild) guess as to who could be our teams if the 2014 lineup was played this year: